Category: DAS KA DUM

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Q. These days when you meet a person who says s/he works in print, what’s the first response you have? You feel sorry for him/her as the view of print is that it’s a has-been medium? Or do you feel happy that the future is bright for the business?

A: I can talk about myself so far response to your question is concerned.  First, why should I be judgmental about anyone’s career choice. Secondly, I focus what is the role an individual plays in an organisation and not on which sector one works.

The mission criticality of the role determines an individual’s capability. Thirdly, when an industry size is 20 thousand crore (in 2024), why should working in that sector would have infra dig perception? I wonder.

Finally, doomsayers have been predicting demise of print media’s demise from the early 1990s but the industry is still growing unlike the print media of developed countries of the western world.

I am neither  an astrologer nor an expert on predicting any sector’s future. But I am convinced that an organisation can be a sunrise company in a sunset sector, or a sunset company in a sunrise sector. It’s true for an individual also.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. Is there a rulebook for who makes for an efficient media network CEO. Sony has had a string of CFOs in the past, Disney-Star had a journalist, now Sony has a content person. According to you, who works best?

A: In a business landscape that is perpetually volatile, the days of one pony trick leader are over. A legacy mindset of fitting in a job description to a position is a sure recipe for failure. It is critical to link delivery of outcomes that is expected from a leader who constantly adjusts to a shifting landscape of an operating environment. It is preferable to look for talent base _— an attitude of problem solving, future backwards mindset, assumptions-based action to solution-based action, perpetually in a learning mode and be a team player for mining collective wisdom and collective play without trampling individual uniqueness (one can’t expect Sehwag to play like Rahul Dravid;.. just to expand what I meant by last observation).I am neither  an astrologer nor an expert on predicting any sector’s future. But I am convinced that an organisation can be a sunrise company in a sunset sector, or a sunset company in a sunrise sector. It’s true for an individual also.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. The Budget presentation is scheduled for July 23. Do you think there should be a pause in between the speech – like between Part A and B of the speech – to allow for advertising? Like a Strategic Timeout?

A: Your question is really creative and looks like a stretched imagination. Media sales guys would be excited by the monetisation potential but Budget as a subject has lost its content stickiness and accordingly its advertisements attracting potential (AAP). It’s also not like an IPL game as the gravitas of the subject doesn’t lend itself to such monetisation frivolities (if I may). So, I can’t imagine that your imaginative question would get a serious consideration in any quarters in North Block.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. While one can always appoint a microbiologist as an Editor or a film-maker as director of a science museum, do you think the adsales team or editor of a large legacy media organisation must be headed by a pedigreed adsales/editorial person? Or it doesn’t really matter?

A: I don’t agree that domain expertise is an indispensable condition for running a marketing or sales department of an organisation.

While domain expertise can provide an advantage for any function, it can also create a blindness towards new possibilities. Relying too heavily on past knowledge or experience can hinder innovation and adaptability. I have seen individuals from different disciplines make significant contributions in new industries when they possess a curiosity to learn, a commitment to work, and an appropriate passion.

Transitioning into a new industry might initially pose challenges, but with the right approach, it can lead to a shift in business trajectory and expansion. It’s crucial to learn from multiple disciplines and apply that knowledge effectively. Today, learning occurs at the intersections of various fields, and technology has blurred the boundaries of functional knowledge or territorial myopia.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. We weren’t invited for the Ambani wedding. Does that mean we haven’t arrived?

A Ha ha. You and I were not also invited in so many weddings or festivities. I wonder why you should suffer from a FOMO syndrome. I have a different syndrome —JOMO— Joy of Missing Out. Please don’t interpret it as a grapes-are-sour syndrome. My personality type at this juncture is that I love aloneness,  serenity and bliss. May be I have realised the significance of my insignificance.

Besides, LIFE is also so beautiful outside a marriage programme. I would have missed all that.

Finally, an invitation list is a prerogative of the organisers. So, the jurisprudence of civility demands that no one can question the same. And I don’t have such a finite definition of “arrival in life“ concept, when one doesn’t know when the exit door would appear. So, enjoy the bliss of life.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. Share of Model is being billed as the new marketing metric in the GenAI world. Referring to the number of mentions of a brand by one or multiple LLMs, as a proportion of total mentions of brands in the same category. Have Indian marketers woken up to this new metric? Or it’s early days yet?

A. IMHO- it’s an old wine in a new bottle. Erudite academicians would vehemently object to it but let me elaborate my stand. Metrics of Business and Marketing (quantitative or qualitative) have always been there for eons. It’s getting sophisticated, thanks to technology and cognitive progression. The arrival of Generative AI/ LLM have made the precision of predictive/ attribution modelling more precise and scientific. But fact remains that some form of metrics have been there to know the ROI of investments in terms of allocation of resources. Secondly, brands have always evaluated their competitive position in the market- the analysis are getting more and more sophisticated. And CMOs wake up before any journalistic interrogation. New age CMOs are more tech savvy than previous cohorts. So, they develop faster adoption of new measurement tools to tick all the boxes of performance evaluation. I must admit that the Share of Model (SOM) metric is a robust metric with whatever public domain knowledge I have.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. We’ve seen companies like Netflix and Amazon investing heavily in AI-driven content recommendations and production. Do you think AI can fully replace human creativity, or is there a balance to be struck between technology and human input

A. There is no denying that AI has several distinctive advantages to enhance human productivity. It has, at the same time, some infirmities that prevent it from substituting/ replacing human creativity/ productivity. This implies that while it excels at certain tasks, it can’t replicate the emotional depth, intuition, and serendipitousness of human creative excellence.

Human beings are capable of  coming up with original ideas during a spark of brilliance/ eureka  moment. This aspect of human creativity enables us to think outside the box and generate innovative solutions to human problems. AI on the other hand, is confined to the limits of its existing data bases for pattern recognition and predictive analysis. It’s not future backwards in anticipating solutions that are rooted in empirical realities.

In view of the existence of both the realities, a synthesis of human intelligence , imagination and AI-led tech would be a realistic approach at this juncture.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. The concept of ‘Brand Authenticity’ is gaining traction in the age of social media, where consumers value genuine and transparent communication from companies. How are Indian brands adapting to this trend? Are they successfully integrating authenticity into their marketing strategies, or is it still a challenge?

A. Let’s look at the ranking announced by a global research agency about most authentic brands in India:

1. Search engine giant Google
2. Microsoft,
3. Amazon,
4. Maruti Suzuki
5. Apple

(Ssource: New York-based global communications firm Cohn & Wolfe.)

Do these findings say any about Indian brands (though 4 out of 5 brands are global brands in India) in terms of their authentic perception?

Before I delve a tad deep on the subject, let’s be on the same page about what does authentic brand mean. In today’s polarised world it can have subjective definition. A few key parameters would be:

1. High moral standards to be followed consistently,
2. Honest, in every moments of Truth,
3. High standards of transparency,
4. Value driven , both internally and externally,
5. customer centricity in every touch point with an organisation’s addressable market
6. In the age of ubiquitous presence of social media and customer activism, an organisation needs to be in conversation with every customer type. approach at this juncture.

Now, given the above, an individual can decide which is an authentic brand. And I can confidently assert that there can be a variety of perceptions about which is an authentic brand. Every negative experience of an individual gets amplified through any media format. In the age of AI and deep fake, one doesn’t know how brand image can be under scrutiny constantly. Marketers constantly proclaim their commitment to consumers but then why there is such wide variation of consumer by brand, by experience. I don’t want to name any specific brand, it’s a nightmare to maintain consistency in authenticity of brands in the age of Earned Media. An organisation needs to work proactively in this space as a paranoid in the same indicative parameters, I mentioned above.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. With the rise of streaming platforms (or OTTs as they are called in India), traditional linear TV viewership has seen a decline. How do you foresee the future of cable TV in India? Will it continue to coexist with streaming services, or is it destined for obsolescence?

A. At this juncture of the industry, the prospect of cable TV does not look very promising. It depends now on how fast they (the players) can innovate and integrate with emerging technologies which could balance traditional broadcasting and the digital era. Easier said than does as they need both perspective and investments. Besides, better comprehension of content across platforms is also critical for successful execution of a survival strategy of the cable television business.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. While influencer marketing has gained ground, measuring ROI in influencer campaigns is challenging. But do you think metrics matter or is sales and share of voice enough to measure an influencer campaign?

A. Evaluation Metrics for any marketing initiative is a must. Marketing to influencers is no exception. As no third party data is available as of now, I shall try to put a few generic parameters for measuring effectiveness of Influencer Marketing which some marketers are following as I know it. Needless to say, the science of the Art is yet to be established and would get more algo driven in near future:

1. Audience engagement through content and design orchestration
2. Influencer Score vis-a-vis other influencers in the same space or in a space neutral way
3. Volume of mentions that the influencer generated organically
4. Pace of Audience growth of the Influencer’s content
5. Social media reach of the influencer
6. Website traffic and bounce rate
7. Earned media Sentiment about the Influencer
8. Conversion % for a brand
9. Revenue growth ( depending on the period of the existence of the Influencer
10. Share of Voice (SOV): usual metrics for a marketer
11. Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) (ie quantum of media coverage)
12. Number of brand affiliation with the influencer’s circle of influence and the impact on a brand’s performance

The above should give a marketer enough indication of the ROI of investment in influencer marketing.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. You were spotted on the streets of Paris. Can you sense that the city is hosting an event as big as the Olympics does it seem like just another ordinary day, much like when an IPL match takes place in Mumbai or Delhi?

A. Paris kicked off the 2024 Olympics with a groundbreaking opening ceremony on the Seine River on Friday. The excitement is palpable but isn’t articulated at all, specially where I am staying- Champs Élysées. There is massive bandobast (in Indian terminology) for the event.

Unlike previous Olympics, the Paris 2024 opening ceremony did not take place in a stadium. Instead, dozens of boats carried thousands of athletes and performers on a 6km route along the Seine, sailing by the Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral and arrive near the Eiffel Tower, after passing under bridges and gateways, including the Pont des Arts and Pont Neuf, and near many of the French capital’s landmarks.

It appears that the organisers are taking advantage of the historic monuments, riverbanks of Paris and even the sky and water, with every riverbank or bridge filled with music, dance and performances.

The 2024 Games are being held in a country at war with itself following waves of anti-government conflict, growing tensions over immigration, religion and race, terrorism fears and the rise of the far right over the past 12 months in France.

The Mayor of Paris, had  said the city’s bid for the 2024 Olympics was seen as an opportunity for the French capital to rebound and heal following outrage at the 2015.

So it’s time to celebrate for France and I am also excited. Btw, how did you intrude my privacy? Guess in the digital age there is no privacy anyway 🙁

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. There are many who say content personaliation is key to engaging consumers effectively. But does it really matter? For years, media has proliferated without customisation?

A. In today’s world, personalisation is an imperative (apart from being a buzzword) for engaging with prospects, whether in virtual onnects like e-commerce or getting feedback about brands and services.

This can be achieved through a variety of means, such as recommending products based on previous purchases, customising the layout and content of a website based on user behavior, or providing personalized services through the use of AI.

Personalisation can be achieved through a variety of routes to enhance increased relevance and increased user satisfaction through retention.

There can be different routes to personalisation viz :

#Contextual personalisation,

#Behavioural personalisation

#Demographic personalisation

#Collaborative personalisation

#Predictive personalisation.

Needless to say, this kind of granularity of personalisation would make engagement with different type of customers very fruitful for businesses.

It may be useful to add a word of caution here that over-personalisation might ultimately leads to invasion of individual privacy and cause irritation. So, it needs to be done judiciously. One can’t forget that in the ultimate analysis, consumers are not just an algorithm and they have unique feelings and emotions too.

Hence, while personalisation can lead to an engaged customer and hence their retention, it can boomerang and generate customer irritation too. The skill is to be sensitive about how far is too far.